The present invention is directed to a child resistant buckle and, in particular, to an improvement in the type of buckle commonly used in many children""s safety seats, strollers, baby carriages, shopping cart seat belts, etc. For example, these type buckles are used as the buckles for children""s safety straps which are applied to shopping carts. The prior art buckle is made, for example, by Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and others and is well known. This buckle is argued by some to suffer from the disadvantage that the two latch members 10 of the male part 20 which slide into a slot 12 of the female part 30 and have barbed ends 14 which engage in the female part, can be manipulated, by some young children, so as to allow the buckle to be undone. As is well known, the two barbed ends 14 are pressed toward each other to allow the male part of the buckle to be removed from the female part.
Others have attempted to provide a child resistant buckle. For example, see Gallbreath, U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,985 which provides a third fastening element and includes a depressable button to allow the third fastening element to be undone. This buckle is cumbersome because it requires that the user learn an additional motion in order to undo it, i.e., the user must at the same time depress the side latches and the center button to undo the buckle.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks associated with the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a simple child resistant buckle with a design and operating features similar to those provided in the prior art.
Briefly stated, according to the present invention there is provided a buckle with male and female mating parts, in which the male part includes features to prevent disengagement operation by a child. The child resistant features include added ribs, webbing in the form of flanges or struts, or barbs or prongs that increase the difficulty for disengaging the buckle. The buckle can be operated easily by an adult, while remaining secure from disengagement by a typical child.